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One of the most exciting changes to SharePoint in the last few years is the advances in custom formatting of columns, views, and forms. These capabilities have transformed lists from functional tools that are pretty boring to exciting, dynamic, visual presentations of data with colors, icons, and almost anything you can design in HTML/CSS. By default, most of the custom formatting samples for columns are shown in a single view, but it is just few steps to make this formatting active in every view.

First, let’s find out how to create some custom formatting. I started with a Work Tracker list from the templates provided in Microsoft Lists and added some data about a project. As you can see from the image below, this template already has custom formatting in several columns. (Category, Priority, Progress, and Assigned to).

I am extremely proud to announce that I have been selected for the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for 2021-22 in the Office Developer category. This journey has been long and while it is certainly a lot of work, I love being active in my tech community, from SharePoint to Azure to M365 to Power Platform. When I learned of the MVP program almost 14 years ago, it sounded like a group of ultimate professionals, so I started inquiring about how to become an MVP. We are fortunate to have several MVPs as part of our local DFW SharePoint & Office 365 User Group. Over the years, we have become great friends and they each have been a significant part of my journey.

I’m always excited when I earn a certification, but some are more special than others. I have been working for over a year to learn all the skills needed to earn the Microsoft 365 Developer Associate certification. While I have been working as a SharePoint developer for almost 15 years, most of my work has been in very specific areas, like webparts or apps. Certifications normally require more skills than one person would have experience in, even someone doing this as long as I have. MS-600, which is the only exam needed for the certification, covers several areas that I just don’t operate in every day. It has taken a while for me to get comfortable in those areas.

I recently took my first vacation since the Covid-19 pandemic began. We travelled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and to be completely candid, I was nervous. For the last 10 years, I have travelled often for work and pleasure, but this is the first time in over a year that we have been on an airplane. While I think my health is pretty good, I fall into the high-risk category for Covid-19 based on the official guidelines. The thought of going through an airport, getting on an airplane, and staying in a hotel for 9 days was daunting.

As 2020 ends (finally!), I realized that I neglected to post about an acheivement that I am very proud of. Last month, I was confirmed as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) for 2021. This is my 5th MCT certification and I even received a nice polo shirt for the 5-year acheivement. I am very proud to be counted among professional instructors in Microsoft technologies and look forward to more opportunities to use my certification help educate others.

Recently, I built a web part for a client, which led to a discussion about why the web part background was static white, which did not reflect the branding on the page. My quick fix was to just change the color manually, but now I wanted to know more about how I could build webparts that are aware of the area that they are in. It turns out, there are several options, depending on the capabilities needed and the web part framework.